


For Want of a Soul

by Tiraen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Black Family, Dark Harry, Dark Harry Potter, Gen, M/M, Manipulative Dumbledore, Parseltongue, Pureblood Culture, Pureblood Society, Purebloods, Slytherin Harry, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiraen/pseuds/Tiraen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Arcturus Black, the Patriarch of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, decided to interfere when his grandson was sent to Azkaban without a trial?<br/>What if Sirius took guardianship of Harry when he was seven years old?<br/>What if Sirius was interested in redeeming the name of his house?</p>
<p>A very different Harry starts at Hogwarts, making all new friends and enemies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For want of a nail the shoe was lost.  
> For want of a shoe the horse was lost.  
> For want of a horse the rider was lost.  
> For want of a rider the message was lost.  
> For want of a message the battle was lost.  
> For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.  
> And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
> 
> This work is un-beta'd.

Four figure gathered in the main hall of Riddle Manor. Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch jr huddled together, worried. They all had felt the burning of their marks, but their master had not appeared yet. They had all heard the disturbing rumors - that the Dark Lord was dead, and a child was responsible. But if their marks burned, he must be alive.

Musn’t he?

Bellatrix, the most loyal of the foursome, had quelled any of the others doubts by reassuring them of their master’s power. But it had been almost an hour, and even she was starting to get nervous at their masters absence.

Just then, the front door burst open, bouncing off the walls. The four Death Eaters jumped, drawing their wands, before seeing who it was.

“Avery! You scared us. What on earth is going on?” Rabastan said, stowing his wand. The fifth death eater looked at him, revealing red eyes, and a familiar sibilant hiss came from his mouth.

“Avery has kindly allowed me use of his body, Rabastan. I’m sure you all have been wondering where I am?”

“My lord!”

The four death eaters fell to their knees, subservient now that they knew whose presence they were in. All were curious, but it was Bellatrix who was brave enough to speak up.

“Master, may I ask what happened? How did you come to be in Avery’s body?”

The hiss that came out of Avery’s mouth was inhuman in it’s anger, and Bellatrix flinched, sure a curse was coming her way. But to her surprise, there was only a dark laughter in response.

“You are bold, Bellatrix. Perhaps too bold. Fortunately for you, in this form I am _weak_. My body has been destroyed, but it is not so easy to defeat Lord Voldemort.”

“Forgive me, my lord.” Bellatrix muttered, bowing her head.

“The four of you are my most faithful followers, and I have chosen to bring you here because I know that you would go to Azkaban before betraying me. Would you agree?”

“Of course, my lord. We would die for you.” The response came from Rodolphus, the eldest of the lot.

“Well said. My other followers are not so devout. Even now, they are lying to the aurors, pleading the imperius curse, begging to be let out of Azkaban. But not you. I have brought you here for a purpose. Ancient blood magic has been cast upon me, magic that I was foolish not to foresee. As such, I am in a precarious position. I will only be able to inhabit Avery’s form for another few hours, before the strain kills him. What is required of you now is to create a new body for me. The world will think me dead, but I will remain here, in hiding, with you. This is only a temporary defeat, and we will rise again, more powerful than before.”

“We will do as you say, my lord.” Bellatrix said, her head bowed. “How shall we accomplish such a task?”

The dark lord laughed, a low chuckle that put the others nerves on edge.

“Worry not, dear Bella. I will tell you. But first, know that the aurora will be out for you now. The four of you, as well as Avery, will have to be in hiding for several years. You will go now, to your homes, and gather what you will require for a long stay. Lockdown your houses, then return to me.”

“Yes, my lord.”

With four _pops_ , the Death Eaters disappeared, leaving the Dark Lord alone in Avery’s body. Avery sagged visibly, paling and shaking. It was difficult to possess even a willing victim at the best of times, but Voldemort was weak from his near-death experience, and though Avery was doing his best not to fight off the invading soul, animal instinct made that nearly impossible.

The dark lord staggered out of the room, and up the stairs, growing weaker and weaker as he went. By the time his followers returned, he would either have killed Avery, or have been forced out of his body. There would be just enough time to write down the instructions to create a homunculus, as well as send the letters he needed to, before then.

The Dark Lord Voldemort would not be defeated so easily.

 

* * *

 

The years passed. The five Death Eaters and their master remained at Riddle Manor, working diligently on creating the Dark Lords new body. Miles and miles away, a young boy lived, a boy who was prophesied to bring the Dark Lord’s downfall.

That boy was Harry James Potter.

Harry lived with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley.

He hated them, and Harry was quite sure that they hated him right back.

 When he was younger, all he wanted was for his family to love him. But Harry was seven, and considered himself quite grown up, much to old to be desperate for affection. No, it was better to just return the favor, and despise them.

He was old enough to know that the way he was treated was wrong, maybe even illegal. But Uncle Vernon’s threat of an orphanage still held weight, and Harry wasn’t completely sure that he was lying about it. No, better the evil you knew.

As old and mature the seven year old believe himself to be, he still lay in bed at night, wishing for someone to come and take him away. Maybe a long lost cousin. Maybe his relatives were lying, and his parents were really still alive, and searching for him. Not that he really believed that, but it was better to dream than give up hope.

Meanwhile, he was usually to busy to indulge in daydreaming. When he wasn’t in school, his family kept him occupied with chores. They were of the opinion that if he was doing chores, he couldn’t go out and get in trouble.

Harry disagreed. He could get in plenty of trouble doing chores. It seemed he never worked hard enough for his aunt and uncle, and always had to do things over.

Not to mention the Strange Things.

The Strange Things, or what his Uncle called his “freakishness,” were the odd things that happened to him. Like the time he turned his teacher’s hair blue when she was scolding him for something that Dudley did. Or the time his hair grew back overnight.

His family didn’t talk about the Strange Things, and Harry didn’t either. All he knew was that they happened when he was desperate, and that his family didn’t like them.

Harry thought that he would never understand the strange things that happened to him, and that he would be miserable with the Dursley’s for the rest of his life. Or until he turned eighteen, but that seemed centuries away.

At the moment, Harry was in the front yard, weeding his Aunt Petunia’s garden. It was one of his least-despised chores, because even with the sun beating down on the back of his neck, he at least had some peace and quiet. And sometimes the snake would visit him, and he could feel less lonely for a while.

He supposed that understanding snakes was another one of the Strange Things, and one that he was grateful for. The garden snakes were quite friendly, and having company that didn’t hate him was marvelous.

One of the snake was with him as he was weeding, sitting in the sun near his elbow.

_“Ssspeaker! Someone is coming. I have to hide.”_

Before Harry could reply, the snake was gone, and a shadow had fallen over him. He blinked at the sudden loss of sunlight, and turned around. There was a man there, with a pale face and shaggy black hair.

“Harry? Harry Potter?”

The voice that came out of the man was hoarse and almost broken, like he was going to cry.

“Yes, sir. I’m Harry Potter. Did you need to talk to the Dursley’s? I can go get my uncle.”

The man shook his head, running a hand through his hair.

“No - well, I suppose. But Harry, I’m here for you.”

Standing, Harry brushed his dirt cover hands off on his jeans.

“Sorry, sir, but what do you mean?”

“My name is Sirius Black, and I’m your godfather.”

Harry froze, staring up at the man with wide eyes.

“My godfather? But how-“

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t come for you before, Harry. I was in Azkaban, I mean jail. I was innocent, of course, but-“

Just then, Harry’s Aunt Petunia came marching out of the house towards them.

“Get back to work!” she snapped at Harry, before turning to the man.

“How can I help you?”

The man glare at the woman for a moment, before speaking.

“I would speak a bit kinder to my godson, Petunia.”

“Who are you?” Petunia demanded, taking a step back. “Your one of _them_ , aren’t you?”

“You mean a wizard? Of course. The name is Sirius Black.”

“Black! You were at Lily’s wedding, I remember now. What are you doing here?”

The man, Sirius Black, drew himself up proudly.

“I’m here because I have been awarded custody of Harry James Potter. Here, take this,” and he thrust a rolled up piece of paper at her. “The court order.”

With shaking hands, Petunia opened the odd paper, and read the contents.

“I see. Boy, go and pack your things. It looks like you’re leaving.”

Harry started at the man, then his aunt. It had happened so fast, he wasn’t quite sure that it was real.

“You mean… I get to live with you, sir?”

The man smiled at Harry, in a way the Dursley’s never did.

“That’s right, Harry. Everything is in order. Go get your things, and we’ll get out of this awful place.”

Harry stared for a moment longer, before he made up his mind, and took off toward his cupboard.

Anything would be better than the Dursley’s.

In his cupboard, Harry started throwing all of this things in a old rucksack of Dudley’s. He didn’t have many belongings, however, and soon the rucksack was full. Zipping it up, he left the cupboard for the last time, and went to stand by Sirius Black. His godfather.

“Bye, Aunt Petunia,” he said quietly, before slowly reaching to take his godfather’s hand, afraid that it was all a dream.

His aunt didn’t return his farewell, and watched in silence as the two walked away from Number Four, Privet Drive, forever.

Once they were about a block away, Harry turned up to his godfather, curious.

“Mr. Black? Were you really at my parents wedding? And what did Aunt Petunia mean when she called you a wizard?”

The man laughed.

“Please, Harry. I’m no Mr. Black. Call me Sirius, or Padfoot. As for your second question, well…”

Sirius paused, and knelt down so that he was at Harry’s height.

“Harry, that’s something that you need to know. Magic is real.”

Harry’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.

“No it’s not. Uncle Vernon says that magic is rubbish.”

Sirius chuckled a bit.

“And do you believe everything your uncle told you?”

That was a good point. Harry generally believed his uncle was a liar.

“Well, no. But magic… really?”

Sirius nodded, before glancing around, as if making certain that they were alone. He then pulled a long wooden stick from his sleeve.

“This is my wand. You’ll get one too, when you turn eleven. Watch.”

Sirius waved the wand in a complicated motion, and suddenly his hair was blond.

Harry gaped for a moment, before he started shooting out questions.

“Wow! Am I a wizard, too? Are there witches? Were my parents magical?”

Sirius laughed, turning his hair back to it’s natural color.

“Yes, yes, and yes. Now, let’s get back to my house. I’m going to do something called apparition. It’s like teleportation, I think. It’s very strange the first few time you do it, so don’t worry if you throw up after we get there, alright? It’s the best way to get around.”

At this, Harry was rather frightened.

“It’s safe, right?”

“Of course, Harry! I’m an expert at this. Now come here.”

Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry, who awkwardly stood still and silent. He had never gotten a hug before, and he didn’t quite know how to respond.

All of a sudden, the world blurred around them, and the started spinning. Holding on for dear life, Harry clutched Sirius, closing his eyes tightly.

Just as quickly as it had started, the spinning stopped. Harry held on to Sirius for a long moment, breathing heavily and trying to suppress the urge to vomit.

“You okay, Harry?”

Slowly, Harry let go of Sirius, shakily looking up at him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Where are we?”

“My flat. It’s kind of small, but you’ll have a room all to yourself.”

Harry looked up at his godfather, a wide grin on his face, the trauma of apparating forgotten.

“I get my own room?”

“Sure, kid! What did you think, that I was going to have you sleep in the cupboard?”

Harry went silent at this, looking down at his worn sneakers.

“No… you mean those _muggles_ made you sleep in a cupboard?”

Harry nodded slowly, not looking up. Here it came. Now that his godfather knew what a freak he was, that would be it. He would be shipped back to the Dursley’s, and his hope for a better life would be gone.

“This _bastards_! How could they? Treating my godson - James and Lily’s son - like that!”

It would seem that Sirius was quite on his way to a good rant, and he would have continued, possibly with a great deal more swearing. However, he took a moment to actually look down at his godson, and he stopped immediately.

Harry had lowered his head, and was visibly shaking.

Sirius knelt down, frowning.

“Hey. Hey, Harry. It’s okay. I’m not mad at you, alright? I’m mad at the Dursley’s for treating you that way.”

He reached forward and gently took Harry by the chin, tilting his head up so that he was looking Sirius in the eye.

“Are you okay?”

Harry nodded.

“Yeah. I just… I got scared that you were going to take me back.”

“No, Harry, You’re my godson. I might have been a bit late, but every day I was in prison I thought about coming to get you. I love you, Harry, and I’m never going to let anything happen to you.”

Harry gave Sirius a tremulous smile.

“Really?”

“Really really.”

Harry darted forward, wrapping his arms around his godfather tightly.”

“Thank you, Sirius.”

 

* * *

 

Later that night, when Harry was fast asleep in his new bed, Sirius sat in his study, nursing a glass of firewhiskey, lost in thought. When the fire turned green, and a man stepped out of it, he didn’t even notice.

“Sirius? Are you alright?”

“What? Oh, Remus. I didn’t notice you floo in. Yeah, I’m fine.”

Pouring himself a glass of firewhiskey, Remus perched on the arm of Sirius’ chair, running his fingers through the shaggy black hair.

“Is Harry alright?”

“Hmm? Yeah, he’s alright. Sleeping.”

Rolling his eyes, Remus tugged gently on Sirius’ hair.

“Sirius. What’s the matter? I thought you’d be over the moon about having Harry again.”

Sirius seemed to wake from a daze.

“Oh, I am, I am! I just can’t believe it took me so long to get him out of that place.”

Remus sighed, shifting down so that he was nearly in Sirius’ lap.

“You know it wasn’t your fault, Padfoot. You couldn’t have known that Pettigrew was that cunning. And besides, who could predict Azkaban after no trial?”

“I know. But no matter how many times I tell myself that, it’s just… Harry let something slip. I don’t think he meant for me to know. But the muggles - they made him sleep in a cupboard.”

“What!?”

Remus shot up from his reclined seat, amber eyes sparking in anger.

“Those bastards! Merlin, I could kill them.”

“I know.” Sirius sounded completely miserable. “And I didn’t notice it right away, but Harry is thin. Too thin. And his clothes are way too big. I think they were treating him pretty badly.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, Sirius. I know this must make it so much worse for you.”

“Oh, forget my problems. I’m just a guilty old man. It’s Harry we have to watch out for. After all, he’s got to pass grandfather’s inspection.”

Remus moaned, collapsing melodramatically against Sirius.

“I’d forgotten. Your grandfather. What is the old man going to think of Harry?”

“We’ve got to make sure that he likes him. If I’m to make Harry my heir, we can’t have any objections from Arcturus.”

“Any new from him? Is he still set on making you his heir?”

“It’s already done. He made up a new will two days ago, and I’m it. The future of the Black Family.”

“Are you still as eager to take the position as you were last time we spoke?”

“Shut up, Remus! You know I hate to do it. Honestly, though, it’s not as if I have any choice. And maybe redeeming my family name is worthwhile. After all, I’ll be the one in charge.”

Remus laughed a bit at that.

“You will! I’ll bet you’ll love to toy with old Lucius, too. After all, he’ll be your ally.”

“Not Malfoy. Ugh, the prat will be such a pain.”

“Let’s not think of politics anymore tonight, Siri. Time for bed.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“Does that mean we’ll need to put silencing charms up?” he asked, an excited tone in his voice.

“Damn right. We’ve got our pup back, I think it’s time to celebrate.”

Sirius shot up, and started pulling Remus towards their bedroom.

“Come on, lover! Let’s go!”


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long to get up! I completely lost inspiration, and then my hard drive failed, so I lost what little I had already written.
> 
> I'm glad to be back in this universe, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Arcturus Black was old. There was no denying it any more. He knew his death was coming, and had accepted it. For the most part, at least.

He had started looking towards what might become of his family once he had died. Who, exactly, should he name as his heir?

His son was dead, and his brother had only daughters. That might have been acceptable, but they had married others, and he didn’t wish to see the Black Family under the rule of another house.

There had been Regulus, but he had been killed by the Dark Lord, for reasons unknown. That left one person to become the head of the Black family.

Sirius.

Arcturus’ grandson left a lot to be desired. He had been a Gryffindor at school, and had fallen in with a motley group of friends. If that wasn’t bad enough, he had run away at sixteen to the Potter’s, of all places. Arcturus hadn’t seen him since.

He was starting to be resigned to leaving his large estate and leadership of his house to Lucius Malfoy when Sirius had been arrested. Arcturus was outraged. Thrown in Azkaban without a trial? Sirius may have been estranged from his family, but he was still blood.

It simply couldn’t stand.

Arcturus immediately started petitioning for his grandson’s release. However, with the recent defeat of the Dark Lord, the ministry was in chaos. Death Eaters were being thrown in jail left and right, and anyone who showed them sympathy was looked on suspiciously.

For some time he was without allies. And then Lucius Malfoy had been cleared. There had always been a kinship between the Malfoy and the Black families, and Arcturus immediately contacted his ally. Lucius may have been young, but he knew what he was doing.

Lucius agreed to assist Arcturus with his cause, and together they started making noise about Death Eaters who had gone to Azkaban without a trial, thanks largely to Bartemius Crouch.

They had to cast much aspersion on his character, which wasn’t difficult, with his son turning out to be one of the Death Eaters he hated so. Though Barty Crouch Jr, hadn’t been caught, it seemed everyone knew that he was suspected.

It took them a long time to get the Ministry to look at Sirius’ case. For some years, the Ministry was rebuilding, ridding itself of Voldemort’s influence, and Minister Bagnold had no interested in the possibility of Sirius’ innocence.

Then, a new minister was elected, and they finally had hope. Minister Fudge was all to eager to prove that he was a more effective leader than his predecessor, and exposing corruption under her rule was exactly the kind of thing he was looking for. Fudge was all too eager to listen to Arcturus and Lucius, and called for a trial immediately.

Sirius was, of course, cleared of all charges, and even given a thousand galleon restitution. He wanted to immediately go to his godson, the Potter boy, but Arcturus had insisted that he go to St. Mungo’s and be treated for his time in Azkaban. It had looked for a moment that Sirius was going to ignore his grandfather’s wishes, but Arcturus had told him that he was to be his heir, and in his shock at that pronouncement, Sirius agreed to go to St. Mungos’.

Arcturus got few pleasures out of life, and the look on his grandson’s face when he told the boy he was to be the head of the Black family was one of them.

Now, Arcturus just had to meet the boy that Sirius wanted to make his heir. He had wanted Sirius to marry a woman and have a natural child, but it seemed that the boy was insistent in being faithful to his werewolf lover.

Artcurus realized his desperation to have Sirius as his heir when he didn’t object to that little detail.

So he had agree to Sirius’s suggestion of Harry as his heir. Of course, Arcturus had a few stipulations - the boy must prove to be an adequate heir, and he must also agree to have two children - one Black, and one Potter, to carry on the lines. It was a lot to ask of a boy yet to reach his eighth birthday, but if Sirius wouldn’t have children of his own, it was the only way.

Sirius had reluctantly agreed.

It had been a week now since Sirius had gone to pick up his godson, and Arcturus was to meet the boy. He had wanted to meet him right from the off, but Sirius insisted that he be given some time to rectify the muggles influence. Arcturus could hardly deny him that, and it would be better to meet the boy after some proper magical guidance.

He was waiting in the sitting room of Black Manor. The Black’s had another home, in London, but it was currently the residence of his rather insane niece slash daughter-in-law, and he wasn’t eager to hear her opinion on Sirius’s new position. She absolutely hated her son, something that Arcturus had tried to discourage, but to no avail.

He was lost in thought when the fire turned green, and his grandson stepped out of the fireplace.

“Grandfather,” he said, nodding at him. Before Arcturus could reply, there was another flare of green flame, and a young boy stepped through the fire.

“So this must be Harry Potter,” Arcturus said, standing up with a great deal of effort. He held out his hand, and with some trepidation, the boy took it, firmly shaking his hand.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Lord Black,” he said, his voice betraying his nervousness.

“Ah, the honor is mine, Mr. Potter. I’ve heard a great deal about the Boy Who Lived, but very little about my potential heir. Please, have a seat.”

Harry took the armchair across from him, and Sirius lounged on the couch, as graceful and disrespectful as ever.

Gratefully, Arcturus sank back into his chair, allowing his aching legs some rest.

“So, Mr. Potter, how old are you? I can’t seem to get a straight answer out of Sirius,” he asked.

“I’m seven, Lord Black,” the boy said nervously.

“Seven? You’re quite young still. Good, good. What do you think of Sirius?” he asked.

Harry glanced at Sirius nervously.

“Oh, don’t be nervous! Sirius won’t mind, will you?”

Sirius shook his head, grinning a bit.

“Well… I think he’s great! He gave me his own room and cooks me breakfast every morning, and he took me to Diagon Alley and let me pick out a bunch of toys! And we repainted my room blue because I didn’t like the white, and he let me pick out new sheets, and the pictures on them _move_! I love magic.”

Harry said all of this very quickly, and had to take a deep breath when he was finished.

Arcturus chuckled. It had been a very long time since he had been around children, and he found the boy’s exuberance refreshing.

“Is that so? Well, I’m very please that you find my grandson satisfactory. Has he told you about me, at all?”

Harry nodded.

“He told me that you got him out of jail. And that, um, you wanted to make him your heir, and that mean thathe’s going to adopt me,” Harry said nervously.

“That’s right. Did he tell you what it meant to be his heir?”

“Yeah. He said that one day I’ll be in charge of the Black family. And said something about having at least two children, but I don’t really understand why.”

“Well, Mr. Potter, it’s because one day you will be the head of both the Potter and the Black families. And for one person to have that much power is too much for one person. So it’s better if we keep the families separate as much as we can.”

It was a simplified answer for a child. The truth was, the Black family had a long and proud history, and Arcturus didn’t want it shunted aside in favor of the Potter’s. His goal was the glory of his house.

Perhaps one day the boy would understand. But for now, let him have his childhood.

He glanced at Sirius. He could see the pride in his eyes, and knew that his grandson loved the boy.

That would have to be enough.

* * *

 

Sirius and Harry tumbled out of the fireplace at Sirius’ flat, one after the other. Remus was waiting for them expectantly, and as he put down his copy of The Daily Prophet, he looked them over.

“Well? How did it go?”

Sirius grinned, perching on the arm of Remus’ chair.

“It went great! Harry charmed the pants off him, didn’t you, kid?”

Harry blushed.

“He was nice. I didn’t know he’d be nice, Sirius! You told me he was mean.”

Sirius laughed.

“I thought he was! He was always mean to me when I was little. He must have relaxed in his old age.”

“So everything’s set? Harry’s your heir?” Remus asked.

“Well, unofficially. I still have to go to the Ministry and magically adopt Harry.”

Harry sat down on the couch and looked up at Sirius.

“What does that mean? To magically adopt me?”

“Haven’t I explained it already?” Sirius asked.

Harry shook his head.

Sirius slid down the chair so that he was on Remus’s lap. The werewolf rolled his eyes, putting away his newspaper.

“Well, it’s pretty simple. They take a bit of my blood, and put it in a potion, and you drink it. Then, over the next few days, you go through some changes. Like, your hair might change color, or your eyes, or you might grow a couple inches. And then it’s over. So it will be like you had three parents, instead of two. Okay?”

Harry nodded.

“Okay. That doesn’t sound too bad, I guess.”

Sirius laughed.

“That about sums it up, eh, Moony? So, what’s for dinner?”

Remus rolled his eyes.

“Why do you always expect me to cook for you? I did dinner last night, it’s your turn,” he said, pushing Sirius off his lap.

Sirius dramatically flopped onto the floor, laying on his stomach.

“Do you see how he treats me, Harry? Pushing me around. You might think I was his dog. Is that what you want, Moony? A dog?”

With a pop, Sirius was gone, and a shaggy black dog was in his place.

Harry giggled as Remus looked at him, exasperated.

“You’re not going to get out of cooking dinner like that, Sirius. Unless you think I should cook for Harry and myself, and dog food for you.”

Sirius let out a bark, and transformed back into a human.

“You wouldn’t let mean old Moony feed me dog food, would you, Harry?”

Still giggling, Harry shook his head.

“That’s my boy!” Sirius said, jumping to his feet. He scooped Harry up out of his seat and threw him over his shoulder.

“Come, Harry! I must brave the kitchen in search of food, and you shall be my trusted sidekick!”

Harry feebly fought to be freed from Sirius’ grip, laughing.

Remus shook his head and stood, following the two into the kitchen. He didn’t trust Sirius alone around a open flame.

* * *

 

After dinner, the small family sat around the table, enjoying a bowl of ice cream. Harry had been silent for a few minutes, seemingly lost in thought. He kept stirring his ice cream instead of eating it, and it had reached the consistency of soup.

“What’s on your mind, Harry?” Sirius asked, scraping the bottom of his bowl for the last bit of ice cream.

Harry shrugged.

“You can tell us, Harry,” Remus said, putting down his spoon and giving Harry his full attention.

“Well, I was just thinking. About that who Boy Who Lived thing,” Harry said.

Remus nodded, and Sirius abandoned his attempt to create more ice cream by power of thought to look at Harry.

“What about it?”

“A lot of people have heard of me, haven’t they? And they expect things of me, I bet. What if… what if I’m not good enough?”

“Oh, Harry, don’t worry about them! You’re going to be the heir of the Potters and the Blacks! No one is going to mess with you!” Sirius said encouragingly. When it didn’t seem to work, he tried another tactic.

“Harry, we don’t care what they think. You are good enough to us. You always were, and you always will be. Why would you care about what strangers think?”

“Lord Black was a stranger, and it mattered what he thought. You had to tell me all sorts of things about how to behave, and what not to do in front of him. Why is anyone else different?”

Sirius shook his head.

“My grandfather is family. He’s going to be your family, too. And that’s not even the point. We had to kiss up a bit with him, because he’s a lord, and it’s up to him who gets what after he dies. But, Harry, even if he had hated you, it wouldn’t have mattered. I would still love you, okay?”

Harry smiled tremulously.

“Okay.”

“Come on! Time for bed. We’ll read to you. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good, Sirius. Thanks.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A question to my loyal readers - how is Harry? I've never written him as such a young kid before, and I'm worried that he's too mature or something. Any input or suggestions on that front are most welcome.

**Author's Note:**

> I very much hope you enjoyed the first chapter of "For Want of a Soul!"
> 
> I don't exactly have this planned out - I'm making it up as I go along, you see. So things may change.
> 
> If anyone would be interested in beta-ing this story, or just talking about it, that would be great! Leave me a comment.


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